By Alexander Dworkowitz
Councilman John Liu’s second town hall meeting Tuesday was dominated by a discussion on means of keeping downtown Flushing clean.
“First and foremost is cleaning up the downtown Flushing area,” the Flushing official said. “The service that we get has not kept pace with our growth.”
Liu spoke of his efforts to secure 10 additional garbage cans for the downtown area as well as replacing 14 standard issue cans with Stanley cans, which have twice the capacity.
Liu also told the audience at IS 237 on Colden Street that he had worked to make sure the supplemental garbage pickup was not taken out of the city’s budget, ensuring that downtown Flushing would continue to see 15 weekly pickups.
The assembled crowd of about 60, however, wanted more.
“Is there a law limiting the number of stands?” asked one woman, referring to the cluster of sidewalk stalls in front of the stores on the crowded streets downtown. “It’s becoming a challenge to get to the subway to get to work.”
Liu responded that there is indeed a law limiting stands. He explained that on the streets with the most vendors, between 40th and 41st Roads in the environs of Main Street, any extension beyond the storefront is illegal.
“They can’t even be an inch outside the door,” he said. “These businesses are being notified.”
Liu said he would tour downtown Flushing with representatives from the city Department of Consumer Affairs. Liu and DCA will find businesses in violation of the regulation on stands and paint a red line on the sidewalk, showing the limit on where the businesses are allowed to extend.
Richard Jannaccio, president of the West Flushing Civic Association, told Liu that laws regulating sidewalks in downtown Flushing needed stronger enforcement.
“There’s no enforcement,” he said. “It’s gotten out of hand.”
Many also complained of the dumping of liquids by restaurant owners into sewers.
Liu said the City Council was set to vote on a law that he had proposed to help solve the problem. He has suggested mandating garbage bags of a certain thickness for the disposal of liquids and requiring such bags to be disposed of in enclosed cans that do not allow the liquids to escape.
One resident also discussed the issue of signage, complaining that many businesses in Flushing have signs in Chinese and Korean and not English.
Liu told the audience that the law mandates that all signs must be written in English. However, he said the Department of Buildings has not worked to enforce the law.
Instead, he said, his office was working to arrange translation of the signs into English, since many of the business owners were not familiar enough with English to write their own signs.
“A lot of them don’t know what to put on their signs,” Liu said.
Residents also voiced concern about the recent Queens bus strike.
“A lot of friends of mine have problems with the buses,” said one man. “What can be done to get the driver’s back to the buses?”
Liu told those concerned about the bus strike to write or call Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“The administration has to be involved,” he said.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
